Systems have been provided in the past which attempt to coordinate colors with sounds, and more specifically to cause differently colored electric lights to be energized in response to musical tones of different predetermined frequencies. The overall effect of such a display system is a spectacular harmonizing of color illuminations with musical sounds. Musical tones are converted into corresponding electrical signals in the systems, and the electrical signals are selectively filtered so as to control the energization of different groups of colored lights. In this way, different color illumination effects are obtained in synchronism with tonal variations of the music emanating from the particular musical source. An example of such a prior art system may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,468 which issued Oct. 29, 1974 in the name of the present inventor.
Other systems have been devised in the past in which lamps generating white light are selectively energized in response to a musical beat to create mobile, dynamic and exciting illuminating effects. The system of the present invention is of this latter type and, as explained above, it provides an improved control system for selectively activating a plurality of individual electrical lamps in order to create unusual wild and spontaneous effects.